Search Results for 'Keith Higgins'

They don’t make it easy on the faithful, but the Mayo congregation will head to church at least once more this summer after a dramatic draw with near neighbours Roscommon on Sunday in Croke Park. There were more than a few decades of the Rosary said by the traveling worshipers down the final few minutes of injury time as Mayo created and fluffed a few chances to win the game and the devotions were dedicated to the full time whistle blowing when Roscommon looked to steal it right at the end.

Last week, I remember telling anyone that was willing to listen that Mayo will beat Cork but it won't be straightforward. Not in my wildest dreams could I have envisaged what occurred. This current crop has certainly put us through the ringer, we have been to hell and back, twice now in three weeks. A rollercoaster of emotions is just a massive understatement. Looking for a simple explanation is a waste of time.

Mayo supporters were hoping that this weekend would be one for making preparations for the Connacht final in a weeks time, but it's the long road for the faithful - for a second year in a row. Being knocked out of Connacht by Galway for a second successive year is what happened and tomorrow evening in MacHale Park - Derry come calling and there is no room for error anymore.

There has been a seismic shift in football power in Connacht in the last four years. After Mayo's 17 point drubbing of Galway in Salthill in 2013 it looked like it would take the Tribesmen light years to make up the ground. After slowly narrowing the gap in 2014 (seven point Mayo victory) and 2015 (four point Mayo victory) they have now caught and surpassed us, beating us twice on the spin in crucial Connacht championship semi-finals.

It was close. Far too close and tense in the final 10 minutes for heart rates. But for Johnny Heaney's superb double goal-line block off Danny Kirby and Diarmuid O'Connor, and it is questionable whether Galway would have contained the Mayo charge in the last quarter.

Mayo take on Galway in the Connacht semi final on Sunday in Salthill in what promises to be a mouthwatering clash to see who will face off against either Roscommon or Leitrim in the provincial show piece on July 9.

Over the past six seasons Mayo have faced Galway five times in the Connacht championship, next Sunday's meeting in Pearse Stadium will be the sixth meeting in seven years. The most basic statistic from the previous five meetings is that Mayo have won four of those five meetings with Galway's solitary win coming in last year's meeting in Castlebar. In those five games Mayo have outscored Galway on a cumulative score of 9-69 to 4-53, unsurprisingly in those five games Cillian O'Connor has accounted for 30 of Mayo's 69 points.

Hurling is a game of inches, an inch this way and that way can decide the outcome of a game, be it from a shot for a score or a ball that slips just past a hand and there was just a matter of a few inches between Mayo and Kildare on the scoreboard and the field in this Christy Ring Cup first round clash.

Mayo will be kicking their heels for the guts of two months now, until they get into championship action and you can only feel that’s a pity - because the intensity and passion they showed in the second half of this win over Donegal is something they will need to recreate come summer time.

There was more than an air of hope around the county last week that Mayo could go to Croke Park and drive a knife into the heart of Dublin's 32 game unbeaten run in their own back yard. But from within minutes of the ball being thrown in, those hopes were proved to be idle pleasures of an early spring day dream.